If you don’t, no need to reply telling me you don’t. I live in the woods with some critters. I live pretty far from neighbors/police so having a gun gives me peace of mind. I also hunt and consider myself a gun hobbiest. I enjoy shooting targets, cleaning/organizing, reloading and earning food with guns.
I have a deep and abiding fear of paper targets.
Sorry, I find humor helps me deal with bad situations. And as a progressive in the US, that is where I currently find myself. Large numbers of people profess that they would be happy to murder me, my family, and my friends, because we aren’t misogynist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic sociopaths. I put a high value on human life, and I would not kill someone over property, but I am willing to kill to prevent others from being killed.
I believe in using as little force as necessary. I believe in de-escalation. I believe that deadly force should always be a last resort. But having a firearm leaves that option on the table, in case nothing else works.
I hope that we can eventually all get back to treating each other like human beings. Right now I don’t think I can count on that from everyone.
I think they are interesting from a mechanical perspective.
It’s half and half. There are occasionally kidnappings and armed robberies where I live so I’m grateful to have the right to defend myself, it’s good to be prepared for any unforseen disaster that might befall us, and I think firearm ownership is an important political right (it seems very suspicious that some of the people who are most eager to impose their political ideas on the rest of us are also very eager to ban one of the tools we might use to stop them). But honestly I just like guns, shooting is fun and I do it competitively, they’re interesting machines to study and tinker with and they have a lot of interesting military history attached to them.
Yeah user Treczoks in here is particularly suspicious on that front.
Want.
Lifelong anti-gun libtard here.
I think guns are primarily for people who fear. I think fear is the primary motivator for firearm ownership. I would like to live in a society where fear doesn’t push people to own firearms. That is not our reality. That is not the society we live in.
There are masked, unqualified paramilitary federal goons entering our communities and harassing and assaulting AMERICAN CITIZENS. I passed my history classes. I enjoy reading up on history in my own personal time. I know where things like this often lead, and I’ve come to accept that it’s time to arm myself. A significant portion of our populace also supports what is happening and would be perfectly fine with people like myself, who want everyone to have healthcare, a good education, and to be fed, being “removed” from this plane of existence. These people are everywhere. I understand that they are not actively going out and killing people like me, but they are voting to persecute and harm people like me and the people I care about.
That’s enough for me to arm myself out of fear.
I don’t believe this to be a good society. I don’t believe this to be an intelligent society. I don’t believe this to be a safe society going forward.
I haven’t purchased a firearm yet, but I’ve been out shooting with friends a number of times and I’ve been asking questions to get ready for the process of acquiring at least one.
Liberal-libertarian here- I think the married gay couple should have AR15s to defend their marijuana crop and adopted children from attack, confident in the knowledge that single payer healthcare will be there if they get hurt.
I also follow history, at least a little. And I think even a light perusal of the last 100ish years should be enough to show anyone that ‘it can’t happen here’ / ‘it won’t happen here’ are foolish attitudes, as the current situations are demonstrating.
I’m curious if you regret your past support of anti-gun policies, knowing that they are directly making it harder for you to acquire a gun for self-defense today?
And FWIW if you have any gun questions or want to know anything about specific guns, safety, culture, etc please feel free to reply or DM me.
I’m curious if you regret your past support of anti-gun policies
Not really.
I’d prefer to live in a society that doesn’t perpetuate enough fear to cause people to desire firearms for self defense. Those societies do exist. And 10+ years ago things weren’t as they are now in America. The situation has degraded. We could have gone down another path that could have led to less fear and gun ownership, but that’s not the future we chose for ourselves.
So I’ve had to shift my expectations. That’s why I don’t really regret advocating against guns in the past. I still don’t like them. I still think more guns will cause more problems. But our society is becoming more ignorant and our decisions are going to lead to more people being more destitute and more desperate, which will increase crime, as political violence also increases, so the bottom line is you have to protect yourself.
Need
With the political environment in the US I am increasingly feeling unsafe and feel like a gun is almost a must have now
Want, we have coyotes and I have a small dog. They usually stay away when I’m around but the last time they barely turned tail once I aggressively went to engage them after picking my dog up. He’s always on a leash but I feel more comfortable carrying a .22 with me when we go out after dark during the winter after that last encounter.
I had the same concern and instead got a big dog to watch over my small dog, my kids too but like also my small dog.
Great Pyrenees.
The coyotes don’t even come around anymore. 95lbs of the laziest guard dog ever is enough to deter them. And so good with the kids - they can lay on her and she don’t give a fuck. Though she can move when she needs to - I’ve seen her in action.
Best part is that she is always ready. I don’t gotta walk around with a gun, or run to get it from the safe. She is always there guarding us.
That said. The gun would have definitely been cheaper in the long run. My dog’s food budget quadrupled.
That sounds like the most incredible dog! Thank you for sharing
If the fasciats are going to try to kill me I will take at least one with me.
Police don’t show up quickly enough to deal with a serious threat, so I have a firearm for home defense. Just one. Not into collecting, whether firearms or anything else.
My dad is into guns, so he gave me one. And I sold it. And then he gave me another, and I guess I’ll hang onto this one for a bit.
I like shooting as a sport. Not into hunting but hitting targets is fun.
That was my interest as well. I never liked the idea of hunting or using guns for self defense. I grew up target shooting, and it was great because it was a sport that a weak asthmatic kid with a flimsy ribcage could take part in. I don’t really do it anymore because I got tired of being around other shooters and I don’t really want to support the industry, but I miss it sometimes.
I’m lucky that we have a lot of BLM land about 20-30 min away that is open to target shooting. It’s also a great for stress relief. The last thing I’d want is to be in a situation where I’d have to take someone else’s life, but if people in my vicinity are armed, you’re damn right I’m going to be armed.
Guns make the police in my area more polite. That was thing I witnessed following the Ukraine revolution as well. Marshal law is more costly on an armed unwilling population.
I also hunt as part of our wild life management where I live.
Its also something that as a maker I love to tinker and build stuff for. Just one of those because you can kind of things
Im American. All the people who think the laws were never meant to apply to them already have more guns than I have friends. And when they die, their likely rotten kids will get them. I can either accept that I live in a country where only terrible people have guns(this includes the cops). Or I could do something about it and take my sefety into my own hands. Really simple choice at the end of the day.
Yeah thats a reasonable rationale.
Florida
Fair
Self defense against wildlife and shady humans when I’m solo camping
need? no need. want/have? I tinkered and shot target with my (now passed) stepfather and we bonded over the science and nerdy parts of it. do i carry? nope.
